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**Director's Corner:              Women in Policing**
 March 2019 | Volume 12 | Issue 2

As National Women’s History Month, March is an excellent  time to acknowledge the many achievements of our female law enforcement  officers and leaders, who now account for nearly 13 percent of those who serve throughout  our nation and include about 300 women who are chiefs of police. Since  Portland, Oregon, swore in the first female officer in 1908, these dedicated women  have joined their male counterparts in making public safety their number one  priority. 

 Notable examples are Officers Moira Smith and Kathy Mazza of  the New  York Police Department—who lost their lives while rescuing victims  from the September 11, 2001, attack on the World Trade Center—and, more  recently, Officer Nicole Battaglia of the Alexandria (Virginia) Police  Department—who, under fire, helped her fellow officers shoot the  gunman who wounded five congressman during a baseball practice in 2017.

 These heroes are just a few among hundreds of women who put  themselves in harm’s way to protect the public, strive to reduce violent crime,  and build strong relationships with the communities they serve. However, women in  the workforce are still underrepresented. Recognizing their contributions, departments  across the country are making efforts to recruit more women. According to Kym  Craven, the executive director of the National Association of Women Law Enforcement  Executives (NAWLEE), raising their numbers is especially important  today, as the challenges facing law enforcement have changed.  

 “The policing model has evolved,” she says, “requiring more  personal interaction. It’s become more of a caretaking role, which women tend  to be better at. . . . A few decades ago, policing was focused on the cocaine  wars, and after 9/11, [on the] response to terrorism. Today, the more common  challenges are opioid abuse, mental health issues, violent crimes, and  homelessness. For example, instead of just arresting drug addicts, officers now  carry life-saving naloxone to counter an opioid overdose.” 

 Moreover, creating a police presence that reflects the makeup  of the community leads to better relations, which in turn leads to increased  public and police safety. A 2018  study by University of Virginia economics professor Amalia Miller found that female representation in police departments significantly increases  reporting of violent crimes against women and decreases domestic violence.  Miller suggests that this is because women feel more comfortable reporting  sexual assault, domestic violence, and other crimes to a female officer—or even  to departments that have female officers on staff.

 But recruiting women is not easy. Mary Ann Viverette, the former  chief of the Gaithersburg (Maryland)  Police Department and past president of the International Association  of Chiefs of Police, points out that most recruiting communications  focus on the “warrior model” of policing, featuring male officers with guns. 

 “More importantly,” she says, “women don’t see many female  [officers] in leadership positions, and in some departments there are few women  at all, which discourages them from wanting to join.”  Yet advancement to a high level of management  is difficult without the support of leadership and opportunities to work in  various areas of the department.  

 “Too often, women get locked into juvenile services or  community outreach positions, but they can do so much more,” she says, citing  the example of Cathy Lanier, who was Chief of Police for the Washington (D.C.) Metropolitan  Police Department (MPD) for almost 10 years. Mentored by a previous  chief of police, Charles Ramsey, Lanier earned an advanced degree in national  security studies and became Commander at the MPD Office of Homeland Security  and Counterterrorism before becoming chief. During her tenure, violent crime in  Washington dropped by 23 percent. Today, Cathy Lanier is an executive with the  National Football League with security responsibilities for the entire league. 

 According to the Bureau  of Labor Statistics Occupational Outlook Handbook, about 53,000  additional law enforcement officers are expected to be hired between 2016 and  2026. We hope that a good many of those will be brave, skilled, and compassionate  women who will continue to make history for American law enforcement, both in  the ranks and in leadership positions. I call on all the law enforcement  leaders to make concerted efforts to increase the number of women in the ranks  of their respective departments, expanding roles and opportunities to advance women  in policing.

 – Director  Keith

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